The Democratic press. [volume] (Ravenna, O. [Ohio]) 1868-1901, 1887-05-12
Monuments and the Bible.

The Saturday ReUiew, in its notice
of Captain COnder's book, Syrian
Stone Lore" says:
1t has been contended by some of
the German critics that the country
ruled over by the Kings of Israel and
Judah was, at the best, poor and bar
barOus. There are, however, three
monuments of recent discovery which
distinctly prove the contrary. The
Moabite Stone shows that the MOabite
people built fortresses, palaces, tow
ers, and bridges, and that they could
write. Is it likely that the Kings of
Samaria and Jerusalem should have
ruled, in their own country, over a
people less advanced than the subjects
of King Mesha, in wealth, power, and
knowledge? Again, Sennacherib re-
cords, in his own account of the siege
of Jerusalem, that Hezekiah sent him
tribute of 80 talents of gold, 800
talents of silver, precious stones, a
chain of ivory, elephants hides, ele-
plants tusks, rare woods, singing
men and singing women. Therefore,
it is fair to suppose, the Kings of Je-
rusalem traded with Egypt, were rich
enough to buy all kinds of precious
siderable trains of slaves. The ST.
loam inscription, also, of an immense
geographic and pathological impor-
ters and their differences from the
long the people must have possessed
the art of writing. For the argu-
ments by which Captain Conder seeks
to establish the antiquity of the PEN
tateuch the reader must be referred to
the work. They are new, startling,
and wholly derived from those exter-
nal discoveries which belong to the
last fifteen years.
The following is Captain Copder's
own summary of what we should know
concerning the Hebrews had the Bible
never been written at all: 3
/. The Hebrews were a people of
common stock with the Semitic in
habitants of Mesopotamia, but sepa-
rating from them at an early historic
period.
2 They worshiped Jeho yah at least
as early as 900 B. c., and probably
much earlier.
8. They possessed the art of monu-
mental writing, and an alphabet of
common origin with that of the Phoe-
nician and Moabite some centuries
before 700 B. c., and possibly as early
as 1,5O0 B. C.
4, They were pastoral agricultur-
lists, craftsmen, and traders. They
possessed horses and chariots, foeks
and herds, and fenced cities and vii
lages.
5. The Hebrew monarchs were at
tended by slaves and musicians, made
use of ivory thrones, and had treas
ures of gold, silver, and precious
stones, precious woods, and other arti-
cles of foreign origin. They defied at
times even the Assyrian Kings. and
allied themselves with Egyptians and
Babylonians.
g. The Hebrews had a non-Assyrian
calendar, and thus probably some
knowledge of astronomy.
7. It is probable that Hebrew liter
ature was preserved in records written
on papyrus and leather, but the know !.
edge of writing seems to have been
confined to the scribeS, and it was not
extensively employed for sepulchral or
other monumental purposes.
8. In civilization there is every
reason to suppose the Hebrews equal
led their immediate neighbors, the
Phenicians, although perhaps not
attaining to the condition of the
Egyptians.
9. They buried their dead in rocky
tOmbs without embalming, and there is
no monumental evidence that they ex-
pected any resurrection of the mortal
body so buried.
The value of these results, as Cap
tain COnder points out, lies chiefly in
their refutatiOn of the destructive
school. 1t should be noticed that
these conclusions are in perfect accord
with the picture of Hebrew society
which may be drawn from the Book Of